ELLSWORTH, Maine — February 8, 2014 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has agreed to allow Maine to restrict its annual elver harvest with a statewide quota, rather than by a cap on the number of licenses that can be issued throughout the state.
The decision on Thursday by the interstate commission, which regulates fisheries in state marine waters, allows Maine Department of Marine Resources to continue ironing out details of a tentative agreement it has reached with the Passamaquoddy Tribe about the juvenile American eel fishery.
Under the agreement, which would resolve a long-running dispute between the department and the tribe, DMR would not object to the tribe issuing as many dip-net licenses to its members as it wants but the tribe would be limited to a 1,650-pound catch total for the 2014 season and would require its members to use state-issued swipe cards, which will track daily landings statewide, whenever they sell their elvers to dealers.
DMR plans to impose individual catch quotas on fishermen that are based on each fisherman’s catch history over the past three years, which the department has said should significantly inhibit illegal poaching. Passamaquoddys will not have individual quotas.
According to a press release issued Friday by the commission, Maine will be limited to a statewide harvest of 11,749 pounds for the 10-week elver season, which is scheduled to begin on March 22. The statewide quota represents a 35 percent reduction from the more than 18,000 total pounds caught in Maine last year, when there was no statewide catch limit. The commission had told Maine that, to better protect declining American eel populations, the state had to reduce its 2014 catch total by 25 to 40 percent.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News